v32.5: Good and Bad Ideas

Good morning folks,

-slurp-

First off, let me start by saying Happy Friday to everyone!  Another week of work is finally behind us and regardless of how badly we messed up this week, today is Friday and the work week is over.  If you are someone who works on weekends, I apologize for teasing you but I'm just too damn happy it is finally Friday.

-slurp-

Yesterday I made a comment in my musing about the person who decided it was a good idea to take a coffee bean, grind it up and drink it.  I sparked a bit of a discussion and I thought it would be a great idea to talk about that today.  I'd like to start with warning labels.  Why do we have warning labels on consumer products?  I think in most cases, warning labels were created to help the stupid.  For example:



You KNOW someone tried this once and their poor pet died.  As  a result, a warning label was created to stop people from attempting to dry their pets in the microwave.  How about this one:



Now I'm no engineer, but this seems a little obvious to me.  How about those electrical devices we have at home?  Especially the ones that live in our bathrooms?  Guess what folks, electricity and water do not mix well.  Or I guess you could say they mix just fine but you may not like the outcome.



You know what?  Let's get rid of all the warning labels and let natural selection decide who lives and who dies.

-slurp-

We see warning labels everywhere we go.  They are in our cars, they are in our houses, they are on the products we buy.  Guess what?  Legos are small building blocks and should NOT be given to infants.  You know why they shouldn't be given to infants?  Because infants put things in their mouths.  Seems fairly obvious to me, but a warning label exists for it.

-slurp-

Take a look around your house and see all the warning labels.  Now consider each one for a minute.  Someone, somewhere attempted to do exactly what the label warns you about.  As a result someone was seriously injured or died because of it.  These warning labels were made to protect people because common sense isn't as common as it used to be.  These days people rely on labels to warn them of dangers.  Expose them to something without labels and they end up hurting themselves badly.

-slurp-

So who did it first?  As the title of my musing suggests, who was the first person to do something that ended up being a new product or a new warning label?  For example, who was the first person to take a chainsaw, fire it up and hold it from the chain end?  Who in their right mind would make a mistake like this?  It would be like taking a sharp knife and trying to cut potatoes with the handle end while holding the blade in your hand.  Seriously folks, WHO!?  I just don't get it sometimes.

-slurp-

Of course on the flip side there are always examples of warning signs that cause harm because they are incorrect.  Take this sign for example:



I guess we should keep left, right?  Or is it right, left?  If the text contradicts the arrow do we follow the arrow or the text?  WHICH WAY DO I GO!?

-slurp-

This is fun.

-slurp-

Let's shift focus a little bit here and take a look at the good things that came out of people "doing it first".  In my example yesterday, someone thought it would be a good idea to take a coffee bean, grind it up and drink it.  I'm not sure how that started but someone had to have thought it up and tried it.  As a result, we have coffee today.  There are many examples I could use.  What about food?  Who first thought that a deer looked yummy?  Who first figured out that a blow fish could be poisonous if you didn't cut it properly?  All of these things didn't come with warning labels so someone had to try it and see.  Consider the poor person who was eating berries one day and found the raspberries tasted especially delicious and the blue berries left an interesting stain on your fingers but were also good.  The moonseeds were good as well but too bad they make you vomit and can potentially be fatal.  Who figured that out first?

-slurp-

I could go on all day about some of this stuff but unfortunately time is against me these days.  Just keep in mind that for every warning label you find was created because someone tried it.  I'll leave you now with this piece of good advice:



-slurp-

Cheers,

Al